VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Shanghai?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Ottawa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’s own page.

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Ottawa 35, Shanghai 10: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Shanghai 25: Ottawa leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa and Shanghai are level on 55.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Shanghai.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaShanghai
Official languageFrench, EnglishPutonghua
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation70 m4 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaShanghai
City population1,017,44924,870,895
People per km²3663,922
Museums within 10 km2045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Shanghai somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.